I’m back in New York and yesterday I met with Coleen and Sue at James. James wasn’t our first choice, as we had hoped to get a table at Olmsted, which is this nice farm-to-table place on Vanderbilt Avenue. Mondays are walk-ins only, but when we walked in at 6:30pm, we were told that the next available table would be at 10pm. Turns out that you’ll have to go there right when they open and put your name on a list, unless you want to have dinner at 10pm, which none of us did.
So instead we went to James, which is a cozy neighborhood spot on Carlton Avenue, and it wasn’t a bad second choice. James is particularly known for weekend brunch, but they were also busy this Monday night and we were lucky to get one of the last tables available. Burgers are kind of their thing, and Monday is Burger Night with an extended burger menu at easy-on-the-wallet prices. We all had The Classic which is a Black Angus Beef burger with cheddar and pickles. I would have liked some kind of mayo-ish sauce too, but it was no doubt a really nice burger and the huge pile of fries made sure nobody left hungry.
We also shared a beetroot salad with warm Taleggio (an Italian cheese) and eggplant fries with curry aioli, both good proof that James’ repertoire goes far beyond burgers, and now I’m curious about their brunch.
If you go to James, try their Nice & Toasty cocktail. It tastes like walnuts and cherries, and it’s quite intense. I ordered it as a before dinner drink but decided to save it for dessert, because it didn’t go very well with curry aioli, but after the meal, it was delicious.
James, 605 Carlton Avenue, Brooklyn, New York
